Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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31. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department will consider discontinuing the use of JobBridge to fill special needs assistant and ancillary posts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15512/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Job Bridge is a national internship scheme administered by the Department of Social Protection. The scheme was introduced to provide a pathway to appropriate employment, training and education opportunities for a specific cohort of jobseekers on the Live Register. Changes to the scheme are therefore a matter for the Department of Social Protection in the first instance.

Recognised Schools and Education and Training Boards may participate in the scheme if they wish under Department of Education and Skills Circular 46/2011 and I have no plans to preclude them from doing so. An internship must not cause an existing member of staff to be displaced from the school or be used to fill a current vacancy in the school. Interns are in addition to any staffing allocation a school/ETB has.

Interns in schools are employed by the schools/ETBs themselves and they continue to be paid their existing social welfare entitlement from the Department of Social Protection plus an additional €50 per week whilst participating in the scheme.